Court hearing set for NW Christian, AIA
Football scheduling deadline pushed to April
Arizona high schools that have tentatively put together football schedules for next season now have until April to finalize them.
Phoenix Northwest Christian and the Arizona Interscholastic Association agreed in court on Tuesday for an evidentiary hearing to be held April 9, which will delay finalizing fall high school football schedules. Northwest Christian went to court to fight its conference placement into 4A by the AIA, after losing an appeal with the AIA Executive Board to remain in 3A.
The AIA originally had given schools until Feb. 18 to finalize their one-year football schedules for the 2020 season.
Former baseball agent Gregg Clifton, who is representing the AIA, was able to work out an agreement on Monday before going to court with Northwest Christian’s attorney, Erik Stanley, to delay the football scheduling. That will allow for the April hearing, at which time the judge is expected to decide what conference the school should be place in for football.
Northwest has been a dominant team at the 3A level, capturing the state title in 2018. The new AIA conference placements for football were approved with a new model that places schools based on the last three seasons’ success, instead of school enrollment. Schools could be placed up or down just one conference based on success the last three years.
Northwest Christian, in a court filing last month, argued the move up to “bigschool” status would create safety concerns by forcing its players to face larger boys who are more well-rested during games because they are not forced to play both ways, as many Northwest players do.
The AIA and Northwest Christian asked Judge Lisa Daniel Flores of Maricopa County Northeast Valley Regional Superior Court on Tuesday for a 60-day delay. But 60 days would conflict into Flores’ schedule. The parties agreed to have the hearing sooner.
A pretrial date is set for April 2. “What we asked the judge to do was to give us an emergency order that would prevent the AIA from finalizing football schedules,” Stanley said. “I’m happy the AIA is willing to work with us to collect the record so that we can present the case and let her make a reasonable decision.”
“What we asked the judge to do was to give us an emergency order that would prevent the AIA from finalizing football schedules.”
Clifton said this allows the parties an opportunity to move forward in an “evidentiary fashion.”
“We feel very comfortable this is not an appropriate matter for a TRO (temporary restraining order),” Cifton said. “The AIA has been around a long time. They have a right to make the rules and regulations, which they did. The got all the information from the schools with this reclassification committee. The school didn’t like their classification. Unfortunately, that’s just part of the process.”
Stanley said the delay will give the AIA time to re-evaluate its rules to place schools for football.
“We’re hopeful we will get the injunction and Northwest will stay in 3A for next season,” Stanley said. “That will require the AIA to go back and look at the rule again and input some ability to really consider the players’ safety, how they place these football teams in conferences.”
Meanwhile, schools all over the state are being placed on hold, finalizing their football schedules for a season that begins in August.
“Whatever happens with the judge’s ruling, if Northwest is successful, it is going to impact other conferences,” Stanley said. “So every other conference that goes ahead and finalizes, they may have to redo the schedule later on.”